Commercial beverages, such as soda, juice, fruit drinks, sports drinks, water, etc., are often sold in bottles made of PET. A typical beverage aisle of a grocery store or refrigerator of a convenience store is full of a wide variety of bottled beverage products in all shapes and sizes. While most aluminum cans are sold in 12 ounce sizes, most PET bottles are sold in larger sizes, ranging from ½ liter to 3 liters, including the popular 20 ounce, 64 ounce and 2 liter PET sizes.
The development of larger PET bottle sizes has meant that the consumer receives more beverage per container. But the downside is that with more beverage, additional cooling is needed to keep the beverage in the bottle cool, i.e., for a longer period of time. For example, when a single serving 20 ounce bottle is purchased, more beverage means that it will take more time to finish the beverage, or that beverage will be left over. In either case, when the weather is warm, such as on a hot sunny day, or inside a hot car, exposure to high temperatures can result in the beverage becoming warm quickly without any means of keeping the beverage cold. Two liter and other larger sizes are susceptible to the same circumstances, such as during an outdoor picnic, or other function, where no refrigerator is available to keep the beverage cold.
In the past, resort has been made to using ice chests, but there are disadvantages to doing so. For example, because PET bottles are often larger than cans, larger ice chests are typically needed, in which case they can be quite cumbersome to use. Moreover, it is particularly burdensome to use an ice chest if only a single serving beverage is desired. Also, when two liter or other larger bottles are involved, it is often impractical to keep them in ice chests while the beverage is being served.
Many individuals choose to pour beverages into other containers, such as cups, mugs, sports bottles, thermal bottles, etc., with ice directly in the beverage to keep it cold. The disadvantage of this, however, is that as ice melts, the beverage becomes diluted. Also, because ice is often made with unfiltered tap water, impurities can be introduced into the beverage, which can, for instance, defeat the purpose of buying bottled water. Carbonation can also dissipate quickly as beverage is poured into another container. The containers also have to be washed after each use.
Archaic attempts have also been made, such as in the days when refrigerators were not available. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 81,814 and 303,815, wine bottle coolers with diaphragms to hold bottles in place are shown, but these designs are neither compact, nor suitable for bottles with twist off lids, since the bottles were free to rotate. In later years, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,998,072, 4,281,520, 5,555,746 and 5,904,267, containers with various compartments, sleeves and packs filled with refrigerants that could be frozen were also developed, but these were required to be frozen and refrozen after each use, and therefore, were not widely used. Various types of insulated containers were also developed, which helped to maintain the temperature of the beverage, with no ability to make the beverage any colder.
What is needed, therefore, is a new and improved method and apparatus for keeping beverages cold, which overcomes the disadvantages of previous cooling methods and apparatuses.